Lets talk photographers! Need advice?

So I basically have photographer appointments all week long. We’ve seen 3 so far and tonight’s photographer really spoke to both FI and I. We both got the feeling that this is the one! She is willing to wait for us to see the rest of our appointments and make a descion. She seems extremely awesome and we felt really comfortable with her. My biggiest concern her time. Is 6/7 hours really enough to photograph a wedding? That seems to be my biggiest concern. Advice? Tell me what you have/had booked for your wedding and what you felt was pros and cons? I have at least two photographers lined up that attend all day with no set time line. One we’ve spoken with is a bit amateur but were still good but not fantastic. So I’m keeping an open mind but I just have a good feeling. 🙂 but would love to hear others opinions and suggestions. 🙂

@kittywolf13: This is tricky, but you have to think about what you want photographed. If you want the getting ready process documented, figure out what time that will happen and see if 7 hours will allow you enough time. I’m going with an “all day” package…no set times because the getting ready photos are also important to me.

@kittywolf13: 6 or 7 hours is not a whole lot when all is said and done unless you’re having a luncheon or something very small.

BUT, if 6 or 7 hours is what you end up going with, I would suggest only having about 30 to 40 minutes of “getting ready” shots and consider doing a “first look”

I’m a wedding photographer, and I’ve shot 20 weddings this season – timing is so important. If your ceremony isn’t too early in the day, and you take my suggestions 6 or 7 hours could very well be perfect!

I was concerned about timing too! But she seems extremely organized and has a list of things to ask us/fill out to get a better idea if how much time we would need. It’s hard for us at this moment to narrow time down because we don’t have a ceremony yet. The good news is that we have a small bridal party so that should help with time constraints. Here’s her website:

What’s you total guest count ? 6-7 hours is probably ok especially for under 100 guests. It depends on your timeline for the day. Make an outline of your wedding day timeline ( including at least an hour for posed pictures ) and you’ll probably have a much better idea what you need.

I personally think it’s much better to go with a more skilled photographer for a shorter time than to chose someone whose work you don’t feel great about for a longer time.

We’re are trying to keep the guests to a 100 or less. Our bridal party is appearing to consist of four people, BM, MOH, ring bearer and flower girl. We would like family portraits as well. But probably just parents, siblings and grandparents (maybe god parents) other wise I think it would be too much for uncles and aunts. Lol I’m sure we could get a cool group shot at the reception. Depending on the ceremony will determine I guess the length of the days events. But I kind of agree about the whole quality over time. 3 more appointments to go!

The amount of time you need a photographer has zero to do with the number of guests, but how much of the day you want documented. If you’re approaching it from a story telling aspect you need to have the photographer there from the getting ready process through all of the events and into dancing (assuming you are going to have dancing). This boils down to your timeline, nothing more nothing less. Is 6-7 hours enough? Depends on how spread out your day is. If everything is in the same location it may be enough. Most photographers will let you add time to your package at a later date. We let people do it even on the day of the event. If the dilemma is you don’t know what your timeline is at the moment, just add time later. If the dilemma is you know your day is going to go well beyond 6-7 hours and you don’t think you can afford it, go with the best photographer you can afford, worry about stuff like albums and print later.

I tell all of my clients, TIME is the one thing you can’t ever get more of after the fact. It’s really easy to get allured in by albums, prints, etc. The *stuff* is all something you can get later, but you can never add more time on once the wedding is over. Hire the best photographer you can afford. I always say, it’s better to have 6 hours with a fantastic photographer than 9 hours with a so-so/crappy photographer!

Remember that you don’t need to photographer there until the end of the reception unless you want photos of drunk, sweaty guests. Really the only way to answer this question is to write out a rough schedule and see if you can get everything you want in 6-7 hours.

We had to add on extra time because we were late to cut the cake – so much to do and so little time! And we didn’t have the photographer stay to our grand exit; it seemed like a waste to have photos of 3 hours of dancing only for a quick goodbye pic!